Tag Archives: france bans plastic cups

The Shell Springboard Awards provides a financial boost to innovative, low carbon initiatives from across the UK. The objective is to encourage companies to see climate change responsibilities as more than compliance and cost. This year funding of £350,000 is available, with individual awards of up to £150,000 for small businesses with innovative, commercially viable ideas that will reduce carbon emissions.

Successful applicants will be shortlisted for two regional finals, meeting judging panels in Aberdeen and Cambridge in March 2017. At each event, three regional winners will be awarded funding of £40,000 each. These six regional winners will then go forward to the national final, which will be held in London in March 2017. At this showpiece event, one business will be crowned the overall national winner of Shell Springboard 2017.

This business will then receive additional funding of £110,000 – meaning that the overall national winner of Shell Springboard 2017 will receive a total of £150,000 to scale up its low-carbon innovation.

Any UK-registered SME can apply. The business must meet the three core Shell Springboard criteria – that it will reduce carbon emissions; be commercially viable; and demonstrate one or more innovative elements. Businesses must have been established for a minimum of three months and have less than 250 employees.

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee last month released its report 2020 renewable heat and transport targets, which concludes that “on its current course, the UK will fail to achieve its 2020 renewable energy targets.”

France has become the first country to pass a law to ban plastic cups, cutlery and plates that are not made of biologically-sourced materials. From 2020, all disposable dining-wear in the country must be compostable and made of biologically-sourced materials.

The law is part of the Energy Transition for Green Growth – a plan that aims to allow France to make a more effective contribution to tackling climate change.